Crimes Act 1961

Matters of justification or excuse - Arrest

30: Arresting the wrong person

You could also call this:

"Arresting the wrong person by mistake is okay if you had good reasons to think they were the right person"

Illustration for Crimes Act 1961

If you are allowed to arrest someone because of a warrant, and you arrest the wrong person by mistake, you will not get in trouble if you believed they were the right person. You must have had good reasons to think they were the right person. If someone helps you make the arrest, and they also believe it is the right person, they will not get in trouble either. The prison manager who takes the arrested person into custody will also be protected, as long as they believed it was the right person.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM328244.


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29: Irregular warrant or process, or

"Protection if you follow a faulty police warrant or court order in good faith"


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31: Arrest by constable pursuant to statutory powers, or

"Police can arrest someone without a warrant if they follow special laws that let them do so"

Part 3Matters of justification or excuse
Arrest

30Arresting the wrong person

  1. Every one duly authorised to execute a warrant to arrest who thereupon arrests a person, believing in good faith and on reasonable and probable grounds that he or she is the person named in the warrant, shall be protected from criminal responsibility to the same extent and subject to the same provisions as if the person arrested had been the person named in the warrant.

  2. Every one called on to assist the person making such arrest, and believing that the person in whose arrest he or she is called on to assist is the person for whose arrest the warrant is issued, and every prison manager who is required to receive and detain the person arrested, shall be protected from criminal responsibility to the same extent and subject to the same provisions as if the person arrested had been the person named in the warrant.

Compare
  • 1908 No 32 s 49
Notes
  • Section 30(2): amended, on , by section 206 of the Corrections Act 2004 (2004 No 50).